Episode
Stanislaw Kastory and Mikolaj Firlej, Co-founders and General Partners at Expeditions: Backing Europe's defence startups with €197m fund
- Podcast
- Scaling Europe
- Published
- Jul 22, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 1310
- Processing state
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Summary
Expeditions is one of Europe's only venture funds dedicated to defence and security startups. The firm recently closed its second fund at €197m. Stanislaw Kastory and Mikolaj Firlej are Co-founders and General Partners at Expeditions. The firm backs early-stage teams across defence, cybersecurity, quantum and space technology. The new fund plans to make around 40 early-stage investments, with half its capital reserved for follow-on rounds. The Scaling Europe show is presented by Deel. Check them out here: https://get.deel.com/ruynb7o4lfjk Sponsors: Chargebee: https://www.chargebee.com/events/beelieve/london/2026 SurrealDB: https://surrealdb.com/ Airwallex: https://www.airwallex.com/uk?utm_source=other&utm_medium=partner_referral&utm_campaign=v01_emea_multi_ib_dg_prtmk_mofu_scalingeurope Lovable: https://lovable.dev/ Timestamps: 0:00 - Introduction 0:08 - Expeditions closes its €197m second fund 1:04 - How raising fund two differed from fund one 4:23 - Fund one's early bets in defence tech 7:10 - What's different about fund two's strategy 9:40 - Where Europe's biggest defence gaps are 12:36 - How Expeditions finds and evaluates startups 16:20 - Do European countries compete for their own defence champions? 19:52 - Financing war vs. financing European defence